On this webpage, Speeze claim that the VultureSpin is only 21dBA*, and that the fan runs at 2300RPM, producing 28CFM of airflow. Speeze also claim 0.56 C/W* for this cooler. The fan uses a 3-pin power connector, which connects directly to a power header on the mainboard.

This cooler will retail at approximately €17.50, which is around $17 or £12, which doesn’t seem too bad for a decent CPU cooler, although much cheaper coolers are available for around £6 to £10, which will cool your CPU well enough but don’t always promise to be silent. The cooling solution on my first PC (Duron 600MHz w/ cheapo cooler) was cheap, but extremely loud, although the CPU temperature was kept reasonable. This price excludes taxes, such as the 17.5% VAT tax in the UK.

First Impressions

The coolers came packaged in plastic cases, which are designed to be put out on display, as they show off the cool purple fans and really do look pretty good.

A Closer Look

The coolers come with a thermal interface material (TIM) applied to the base of the heatsink. Although a branded TIM such as Arctic Silver would have perhaps yielded better results in the way of temperatures, I have decided to use the applied TIM, as this should be considered part of the cooling set up that this article is reviewing. After all, not every one has a tube of AS lying about (I don’t currently have any to hand). The heatsink is composed of a copper insert in an aluminium heatsink. The theory behind this is simple. Copper will absorb heat from the CPU faster than aluminium will. However, an all-copper heatsink is both expensive and heavy. Also, copper will release the heat to the air slower than aluminium. So Speeze have used both (not a new idea, but one that seems to work) in their VultureSpin CPU cooler. The copper insert will absorb the heat from the CPU quickly, and the aluminium will absorb the heat from the copper and release it into the air, with the help of the fan. Being mainly composed of Aluminium, the heatsink feels quite light. The fan itself is a rather cool purple colour, which does stand out rather well – ideal for enthusiasts/modders with a windowed case and a blue or red motherboard, and is an 80mm model. This allows for, in theory, either more airflow than 60mm or 70mm fans, at the same rotational speed. Also, an 80mm fan can push the same airflow as a 60mm or 70mm fan but at a lower rotational speed, making the cooling solution quieter. The VultureSpin uses a 3-pin power connection, connecting directly to the motherboard fan header. The cable is sleeved in a clear plastic tube, which I have to say is a fantastic idea. The 80mm fans I was using before had a 3-pin wire, and the wires got in the way a lot. The plastic sleeve keeps them together nicely.

I examined the base of the heatsink for any imperfections. The base had clear machining marks on it, I could both feel and hear ridges if I ran my fingernail along the surface of the base, perpendicular to the ridges. However, I could not examine the centre area (which would be in contact with the core) due to the pre-applied TIM, however I would imagine it would be the same due to the pattern of the machining marks – this heatsink may require lapping for best performance. A 3-prong clip is used for heatsink installation, which is nice to see although this heatsink isn’t actually very heavy. The clip requires use of a flat-headed screwdriver to install, and the clip is very stiff and difficult to clip on. This could possibly cause problems, if you slip with the screwdriver and hit the board, but it does mean that the heatsink is properly attached and shouldn’t fall off too easily. Proper contact with the CPU core is also ensured.

The Test System

Specs:

-- Dual AMD AthlonXP1700+ modded to MP2100+ (see this forum article for details on how I overclocked my CPU). CPU voltage: 1.5V, FSB 266MHz.
--512MB PC2100 Crucial DDR RAM
--MSI K7D Master-L mainboard (AMD 760MPX chipset)
--2x 40GB Seagate Barracuda HDD, 7200rpm/ATA100.
--CDRW and DVD-ROM
--Albatron GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB Video Card (AGP 4x)
--PCI NIC, USB card and sound card
--550W Unbranded PSU

Current Cooling setup consists of:
-Akasa 785CU Aluminium Heatsinks with YSTech 80mm fans and Akasa 80>60 fan adaptors.
-Standard GPU cooler on Video Card
-80mm YSTech exhaust fan at rear of case

This setup is pretty quiet, which is very important to me – I don’t want a PC that sounds like an airport! The 21dBA noise level quoted for the VultureSpin sounded pretty good, but performance will also be a big factor in deciding how good a cooler it is.

The Testing

Old Setup

For idle testing, the computer was turned off for a few hours to allow the computer to cool completely to ambient temperature. The computer was then booted up, running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 1, and was left untouched for 10 hours, running minimal programs.

During both tests, ambient temperature varied from 21.5 to 23.5 degrees Celsius. I had written exact ambient temperature down on a piece of paper, but unfortunately have lost it. The majority of readings were around 23 degrees Celsius, so this will be what I will use as the ambient temperature.

The temperature when the computer was initially booted were as follows:

CPU 1: 39 C
CPU 2: 42 C
Case: 25 C

The temperatures after the 10 hours of idling were as follows:

CPU 1: 45 C
CPU 2: 46 C
Case: 32 C

Temperatures were 13 to 14C above case temperature and 22 to 23C above room temperature.

To test the load temperature, the Folding @ Home distributed computing client (see http://folding.stanford.edu for info, PCExtreme are team 10346) was run constantly for over 10 hours, again after a few hours of downtime. Two instances were run on the computer: one running on each CPU, as the client is not yet multithreaded.

Temperatures on boot, before Folding@Home was started (PC had been up for 30mins approx) :

CPU 1: 51 C
CPU 2: 51 C
Case: 33 C

Temperatures once the 10-hour testing period was completed:

CPU 1: 53 C
CPU 2: 53 C
Case: 35 C

After the 10-hour period was complete, the CPU temps were 30C above room temperature and 18C above case temperature. According to a handy little calculator here, from Benchtest.com, an XP2100+ Thoroughbred CPU such as mine, running at 1.55Volts, would produce 58.26W of heat. Thus, roughly, the C/W rating for these coolers are 30C per 58.26W = 0.515 C/W.

From this you can see that the cooling isn’t special, but does the job. It keeps the CPUs under 60C, but even temps in the mid 50s aren’t really anything to be proud of.

So out came the old coolers, and in went the new….

The New Coolers

All that was changed was the coolers: some pics of the VultureSpin Heatsinks getting installed into my rig:

The old coolers:

Old cooling removed:

CPUs minus cooling

The new coolers:*

The purple fans do look really cool, ideal for windowed cases.

And again, the testing routine is the same:

The temperature when the computer was initially booted were as follows:

CPU 1: 38 C
CPU 2: 41 C
Case: 25 C
Ambient: 23 C

The temperatures after the 10 hours of idling:

CPU 1: 43 C
CPU 2: 44 C
Case: 31 C
Ambient: 24 C

From these results, you can see that the CPU temperature is x degrees above case temperature and x degrees above room temperature

To test the load temperature, the Folding @ Home distributed computing client was again run constantly for over 10 hours, again after a few hours of downtime.

Temperatures on boot:

CPU 1: 38 C
CPU 2: 40 C
Case: 22 C
Ambient: 21 C

Temperatures once the 10-hour testing period was completed:

CPU 1: 51 C
CPU 2: 54 C
Case: 28 C
Ambient: 25 C

These temperatures were 23 to 26 degrees above case temperature and 26 to 29 degrees above room temperature, which works out at 0.446 to 0.498 C/W if my CPUs produce 58.26W of heat (from the Benchtest.com online calculator). The C/W rating is a lot better than that of my older cooling system.

Analysis of Results